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One In Three Kinksters Reports A Consent Violation

Last Spring I wrote a series about rape and abuse in BDSM communities, titles There’s A War On. Here’s the start of the series. One thing I couldn’t do at that time was say how many people in BDSM communities experienced consent violations. Now I can.

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom did a survey this Fall on consent. Results are in. The survey got over 5000 respondents. It was broadly focused on people’s views of what constituted consent, and not experiences of violation, but there were two questions about experiences of violation. Here are those questions, and the responses:

“Have you ever had a pre-negotiated limit violated in a BDSM scene or relationship?” Of 4,115 respondents (1,552 missing):

No

2,878

69.9%

Yes

1,237

30.1%

“Have you ever negotiated a safeword or safesign with a partner who then ignored it during play?” Of 4,110 respondents: